


Family Secrets

by n7chelle



Series: A Herd of Black Sheep [3]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: F/M, Family Secrets, Unconventional Families
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-16
Updated: 2018-09-16
Packaged: 2019-07-12 23:16:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16005344
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/n7chelle/pseuds/n7chelle
Summary: Athena reveals a unique secret regarding her many siblings.





	Family Secrets

**Author's Note:**

> Here's the first of the r/dragonage posts! The prompt was revealing a secret from the past, and the reactions of the companions. Slightly edited since I decided to write in present tense later. 
> 
> Set sometime before WEWH.

Athena jiggles her foot nervously where it can't be seen as the War Council meeting winds to a close. She's been working up how to say what needs to be said all week, but now she wishes she'd gone through with her original plan: catch Josephine alone sometime late at night and confess the whole thing in confidence, where it might remain concealed from the rest if necessary. But the longer she pondered having that conversation, the more she felt uncertain, and the more she felt guilty about adding to Josephine's concerns with a shared secret.

 

It isn't even a very well-kept secret, Athena reasons, not in Ostwick. She isn't foolish enough to hope Leliana doesn't already know, and if Vivienne plays the Game even half as well as she appeared to? The enchanter likely already has at least partial knowledge tucked away for some yet-unknown but advantageous purpose. Cassandra might even sympathize, given her experience with extended family ties. 

 

Then there's Cullen. It isn't militarily relevant, so he might not care at all. But Athena knows—from experience—that Fereldens look on this sort of thing with the least accepting eye. The Commander will certainly look at  _her_  differently for at least a moment once the implications settle in, and before it's hidden away by the demands of professional courtesy. She doesn't want to see pity on his face, or worse, disgust. 

 

Childhood is too distant for Athena to recall how she'd felt once she began to understand what it meant that she and her brothers each had their own mother. Only that she'd made peace with it once Fi was born, and barely given it a thought since. It's the strangest thing for Athena to realize that it had never _required_  explaining before now. The other noble families of Ostwick see the Trevelyan crest and look no further into how many heirs the Bann has added to the family records over the years. 

 

"Inquisitor," Josephine says, bringing Athena back to the present in a rush. "You said you had something important to discuss with the Council?" The faces of the other Council members turn towards her. Blank, undemanding expectation from Cassandra and Cullen. Is that a hint of suspicion on Leliana's face? It always feels like she's looking past the person in front of her, seeing all the things she already knows about them instead. Only Josephine smiles, unabashedly curious. 

 

_Alright then._  The words she'd chosen hover in her mind's eye, clear and crisp at the bottom of an otherwise messy sheet of parchment. The actual sheet is safely hidden in the desk in her chambers, a battleground of ideas and sentences crossed out, linked with long arrows, splotches of ink on the corner where she'd let her mind drift with the loaded quill in hand.

 

Deep breath. Her hands shake, palms on the table  _Why is this so frightening?_

 

"Bann Trevelyan...is not my father."

 

A beat of silence. Then, from Cassandra: "Beg your pardon, Inquisitor, but— _what?"_

 

"The Bann is my uncle," Athena says. "My siblings and I, with the exception of Corlan, are the children of  _his_ younger brother, Julian."

 

"Julian Trevelyan actually has children?" Josephine exclaims. "I'd heard rumors before, but..."

 

"Several, to my understanding," Leliana cuts in, the foreknowledge delivered with her usual detached pragmatism. "And just as many wives."

 

Cassandra's expression flattens, the way Athena has learned is her way of centering her thoughts, of examining them from an impartial distance before making judgments. She'd seen it often in those first few weeks at Haven, a wall always raised between them when she sought out the Seeker for reports or updates. It came down in pieces, brick by brick with each step closer to sealing the Breach, until Athena felt like the wall wasn't so much  _gone_ , it had just reformed with her on the other side, having earned both Cassandra's implicit trust and respect. It hurts, more than she could have anticipated, to be on the wrong side of that wall again.

 

"Athena," Cassandra says. The effect is palpable. Her given name has never been spoken in these meeting. It is always  _Inquisitor_ or _Herald_ or  _Lady Trevelyan_. "Why mention this now?"

 

Athena squares her shoulders.  _Be the Inquisitor_ , she tells herself. This isn't about her, it's for the good of the Inquisition.

 

"We're going to Winter Palace, and as our spymaster is so fond of reminding us, information is power. I didn't want it to be a secret that could be used against the Inquisition." Athena glances at each of them in turn. Like Cassandra, Cullen's features are closed off, his brow furrowed deeply, arms crossed. Her hands want to fidget, but the feel of lacquered wood against her palms is grounding. "Telling you means giving you—giving  _us_  a chance to formulate some kind of, I don't know, official response if it becomes a public issue."

 

"A prudent line of thinking, Inquisitor," Josephine nods. She's already scribbling down notes, and she sounds...impressed? That's good, right?

 

"It's not exactly a conventional secret, Inquisitor," Leliana adds. "There are several from noble houses in Ostwick, and perhaps in the Chantry as well, who could have seen family records listing you and you siblings as  _heirs_ to the Bann, rather than his children. We would do well to find out precisely who has been allowed access to this information, and if any of them have reason to move against the Inquisition or the Trevelyans."

 

Athena sighs. _Politics._  She can feel a headache brewing at the base of her skull already.

 

After that, Leliana largely takes the lead for the remainder of the meeting. It's simple enough for her to delegate a few agents to look into the record keeping in Ostwick, and apparently no trouble at all to place a few more agents in various houses within the city. Athena still isn't entirely comfortable with the ease with which Leliana works, as if all of Thedas is simply a game board for her to rearrange as necessary. Even as Inquisitor, it often feels like she sees only a glimpse of the true scope of Leliana's influence. Undoubtedly, by her own design.

 

Cassandra leaves swiftly once the meeting adjourned, as is her habit. Too much standing around talking about action makes her itch for a blade and training dummy. She grasps Athena's elbow as she passes, a single strong squeeze and a hint of a smile pushing at the scar on her cheek. It's enough to set Athena's mind, if not entirely at ease, on the right path. Leliana and Josephine leave together only a few minutes later, heads together and speaking in a half shorthand she has yet to fully decipher.

 

Which leaves her alone. With Cullen. 

 

By now Athena has lingered far longer than her excuse of straightening the sheaves of parchment before her could explain. A surreptitious peek across the table reveals the Commander is almost certainly stalling as well. She watches him move several of the tiny markers on the map of the Thedas an inch to the left, and then check their positions against his notes.

 

"I think we can both stop pretending to be doing something important," Athena says. Cullen startles slightly, the token marking the Hinterlands slipping from his fingers almost guiltily. He lays his notes on the table, and Athena sets her own Very Important Papers aside with a sigh.

 

"If there's anything you feel like you have to say," she starts.

 

"Actually, I was..." Cullen clears his throat awkwardly. "I noticed—couldn't  _help_  but notice—that you seemed particularly concerned about my reaction."

 

"A bit, yes. I know how it sounds, believe me." 

 

"Right. I'm honestly not sure I followed before. Leliana made it sound like your...your father had multiple wives."

 

"And  _that's_ how it always sounds," Athena says. She rubs at her neck, pushing on the spot where the headache is centered. "How else do you explain a man his age with seven children and six mothers between them?"

 

"Well, when you put it that way," Cullen chuckles. "It's certainly not the sort of thing you hear every day." He ran a hand through his hair, awkward, endearing, honest. Everything she's already half in love with, even if neither of them have said anything so declarative out loud. A section of blond escapes to defiantly flop against his forehead. "Maybe you could...clear up some of the details for me?"

 

A smile touches Athena's lips. She'd worried herself for nothing, it seems.

 

"Alright," she says, grabbing a blank sheet of parchment and a quill, and sketches the beginnings of a family tree. She can always burn it later. "It started with Elijah, and his birth mother, Lenissa..."


End file.
